La ricerca di un modello applicativo dell'imposta sul valore aggiunto per gli scambi intraunionali impermeabile alla frode: evoluzione e prospettive di riforma dell'esperienza Europea e comparazione con quella Canadese

VAT fraud in the context of intra-Community transactions is the real problem of the current transi-tional regime which implements the tax through the reverse charge mechanism. The application method chosen by the Community legislator, at the time of the abolition of internal customs, repre-sents the major weakness of what is generally defined as the transitional VAT system. In particular, the transnational frauds that are perpetrated by deceptive and artificial mechanisms, despite their diversity and complicity, find in the tax exemption the essential prerequisite for their realization. This is the part of the system mostly lends itself to the fraudulent mechanisms through which it is possible to extract important economic resources from the Member States, and consequently also to the Community finances. Several initiatives have been taken to modify and update the Community rules by the European institutions, all aimed at containing and combating the VAT fraud, starting with the strengthening of administrative cooperation and the Community criminal protection pro-vided for by the new PIF Directive on the protection of EUࢠs financial interests, in which the most serious forms of VAT fraud are also fully included. However, a "definitive" response against intra-community carousels comes from the latest reform that introduces into the European legislation the definitive VAT system for cross-border supplies. The application mechanism of (M)OSS, with which the tax levy is carried out in the new system, has the double advantage of eliminating the shortcomings in the tax exemption regime and is also in line with the political address to tax all in-tra-EU supplies in the destination country, similarly to the Canadian VAT that has been using its own MOSS since 1993 for the taxation of intra-provincial supplies. Compared to the Community MOSS the Canadian mechanism has the further advantage of relying on a centralized tax admin-istration system